End of the Semester
It's over. This semester has really kicked me in the ass. I was in a class by myself - literally - it was just me and the teacher. And, well, Sophocles. In the other classes I'd been taking, if, after a particularly gruesome day at work, I just couldn't face studying, I wouldn't. Most of these times I would go to class anyway and just hope I didn't get called on. This past semester, I knew I would get called on, so I had to have something prepared everytime. The teacher knew my situation, that I was working full-time, and he did his best not to pressure me too much. He always said it was better to get ten lines done and get everything right, then do fifty half-assed. He and I had a lot in common and we got along well. He had been an English major as an undergraduate who went through a post-baccalaureate program in classics to go to graduate school. I was an English major as an undergraduate who wants to go through a post-bacc program in classics to go to grad school.
My job is a problem. The program isn't here - it's at UNC in Chapel Hill. I need a job with a more flexible schedule. I also need a job that's less crazy. The end of the semester, when I wanted to really finish off on a high note, is when my job gets really hectic. The past two weeks I couldn't get good class-work done because I was so warn out from this place.
A woman in technical services - the "behind-the-scenes" department where everything is processed - wants to retire, but she wants to sell her house before she does. Good luck, right? She and I have talked and she knows what I'm going to try to do, and she wants me to have her job, but . . . She's started telling me something different every day. I'm starting to feel I need to investigate other options. Technical services would be ideal, because one can have a more flexible work schedule because no one over there has to deal with the public, and also because the work-load is consistent all year - it doesn't vary wildly like it does here in circulation.
Also, too, I think getting accepted into the program will help things, give me some credibility, whether I stay in some job here or someplace else. I mailed the application almost two weeks ago. The only other thing I needed, a second letter of recommendation, my most recent teacher mailed Wednesday. I should find out in a couple weeks.
One of the professors at UNC e-mailed the professor here who wrote my first letter of recommendation and told him I looked like a good candidate. My most recent teacher said he was sure I'd get in.
I hope I find out reasonably soon - the waiting will kill me.
